How was your food in the MDR?

[floridababa]

Very disappointed with Royal. Just got off Odyssey and most nights the food ranged from fair to ok.  Beef stroganoff had way too much gravy, lamb shank had a reddish sauce with strange taste, fish had no taste even with tons of lemon, Turkey was dry, etc

Appetizers were good except for escargot that were tiny and tasteless.

Rolls at dinnertime were nothing special.

We cruise lots (74) up to now and never had so much of the food to be disappointing. We are not picky- breakfast was great, lunch had few selections but I'm use to only having salad with tuna or chicken salad. Dinner was really bad. We were with another couple and they felt the same. Are they cutting back on quality?  Makes us rethink travelling on Royal again. I need to hear from you guys. 

To some of you I might sound picky but just the opposite. I'm not very hard to please.

Chef came over to us but he refused to listen to the problems. And even though lobster tail was small it was pretty good.

Hope to hear from you guys

[Biker19]

12 minutes ago, floridababa said:

Hope to hear from you guys

You likely had a one off experience or your taste buds have changed.

[DaniDanielle]

We enjoyed the food in the MDR.  We were on the simulation cruise so maybe they worked harder!

[leyla]

Just off Harmony on 24th and our experience was great.  No complaints.  Staff was also great.

 

[Castle25]

never had a problem with MDR - in fact they bend over backwards to help my wife who is Gluten Free .  i even asked for a curry which wasn't on the menu and it was one of the best ones i had ever had.  If the food isn't good you need to complain to the head waiter in your section

[zekekelso]

Never been a huge fan of MDR food. “OK” sounds about right to me. 

[Maitaivegas]

I have seen video’s of the food on Symphony and I have come to the conclusion that I’m a very picky eater.

im not a foodie, so we got the UDP so we can choose a restaurant that has what we want to eat.

I also like the fact that the employees serve us in the buffet so hopefully this won’t change before February 2022.

[Junkhouse]

All the food we had was better then normal at the MDR.  I can see that after being on 74 cruises it is difficult to cook something that you haven't had before or might have been cooked better on another cruise.

[bstel]

sailed on RCL back in June, food in MDR was A. OK by me and wife.  Now Carnival is a different matter.  Just sailed on them in October and food was definately worse than 3 years ago when I last sailed.

[DCPIV]

It sounds like there's a good deal of variation around the line. 

 

I've been sailing on RC for about 27 years and, even though I was very impressed with their food for a long time.  In fact, I was one of those folks who would say something like "why in the world would I want to pay extra for Chops when the dining room is as good as it is?"  Shortly after the expansion of specialty restaurants, though, we noticed the quality begin to gradually drop.  We started going to the occasional specialty restaurant evening around then. 

 

The gradual drop ended with a rather appalling couple of dinners on Liberty about 5 years ago.  The food somewhere around "hospital grade" (a bit tongue-in-cheek, but only a bit).  The service also was horrible, but that's wasn't the servers' fault.  They were just spread so thinly that they couldn't keep up.  This was at a designated seating, as well--not MTD.  After two nights of that, we had no desire to dine in the MDR again.  These days, when I'm pricing a cruise on RC, I just add on the price of the UDP when deciding if we like the value.

 

Fortunately, we had a much better experience on Empress (RIP) in 2017.  Since there only was Chops on board, we decided we would give the MDR a whirl.  The quality of both the food and service in the MDR was fantastic!  We did dine at Chops a few times over our 9-day B2B, but it was more for variety than anything (and because they would offer us terrific deals for it).  We never felt like we needed to get away from the MDR or improve upon it.  We were heartbroken when our 2018 Empress cruise was cancelled (no more Cuba) and even more so when she was sold off.

 

I'm very glad to hear that things may have improved over our bad experiences, at least in some cases.

 

22 minutes ago, bstel said:

Now Carnival is a different matter.

 

DW said the same thing after she was on Carnival about a month ago.  She is not a picky eater by any measure, and she's been on Carnival enough to know to set the bar fairly low in the first place.  However, she said that the MDR didn't clear that bar a couple of times and barely cleared it the rest of the time.  It was only a 4-nighter, so she was fine with it (and was having fun with her girls group, regardless).  Worth noting, though.

[HicksRA]

They may be having problems securing quality food just like we see at grocery stores currently. We were on Indy for two weeks last month and most of the food was good except for the duck both times which was so dry and bad I had to send it back the second time. 

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, Maitaivegas said:

I also like the fact that the employees serve us in the buffet so hopefully this won’t change before February 2022.

Between norovirus and COVID and food waste issues, I bet we never see self-serve at the buffet again.

[DCPIV]

1 minute ago, brillohead said:

Between norovirus and COVID and food waste issues, I bet we never see self-serve at the buffet again.

 

That wouldn't bother me one little bit.

[floridababa]

Thanks for the responses. 

[satxdiver]

We were on the Liberty last week and ate all meals in the MDR .  I found the food to be good with some exceptions that I would never order again.  They did have strange ways to prepare certain dishes like tiramisu and club sandwiches.  For the most part I was happy.  We stayed out of the WJ for health reasons.  On our only HAL cruise they served the food in the buffet cafeteria style which I did like and had hoped the other do as well.  Looks like at least temporarily my wish has come true.  It certainly holds down the noro cases.  

[binro01]

Over the years, I have noticed my tastes become more refined and alert to subtle differences in flavor, balance, seasoning and textures. I long for the days, 30 years ago, when I thought some of my favorite eating venues were great. Now they are only passable for nostalgia/comfort purposes.
 

I see the MDR in a similar light. I recall when I was in my 20s the MDR being an elegant affair, with over the top, phenomenal food. Mind you I was coming out of school, where Top Raman was lunch, and dinner was something I arranged from a whim.

Now at age 51, I know what "great" food is. I also know how hard its to jump from "good" to "great" and how much harder it is to go from "great" to "phenomenal".

I also know the "MDR" will be "Good" at best, fair more often than not, and poor, on occasion. Its banquet food. It's not a gourmet. Its created in huge batches, where consistency is king over painstaking detail. It's directed at not offending 95% of the pallets out there, causing uninspired taste, mild seasonings, and flat textures.

In specialty restaurants the batches are prepared in much smaller amounts with more attention to detail. Flavors and textures are more adventurous. They also have more direct intervention and attention by the head chef of the venue, with the line cooks. Just by these fact alone, you will achieve a better food product.

So, I'm not 100% sure if the MDR's food quality has gone down over the years. I think my standards have gone up more than any degradation in quality.

 

[Norwich Cruiser]

Although we normally buy the three night dining package on Oasis class ships we’ve always enjoyed our meals in the MDR.

[neverbeenhere]

Ahhh Yes, it's been studied a lot. The more you pay for food the better the perceived taste.

[LorraineP]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

Between norovirus and COVID and food waste issues, I bet we never see self-serve at the buffet again.

GOOD! Hope they keep it this way. 

[sargenet]

The only comment I will have is on escargot….I just got off Mariner…and escargot is my all time favorite…but it was bland this time as mentioned in posting. Not bad but not as good.  I decided to get the chops filet one night and pay extra….but I actually liked their strip steak with garlic butter better so next time will stick with that.  another night I paid extra for surf and turf..that filet was soooo much better than the filet the first night.  But the lobster was disappointing.  It was still good food but not to the level of the speciality restaurants…then again I actually didn’t over eat this cruise which I think I would have done in specialty restaurants

[derorim]

4 hours ago, floridababa said:

Just got off Odyssey and most nights the food ranged from fair to ok.

 

I gotta say, I am so tired of cooking that "fair to ok" food prepared by someone else sounds delightful.  Especially if they clean up afterwards too.

[shofer]

We were on the Vision in 2015 for a 12 night Med cruise and couldn't believe how bland and tasteless the food was in the MDR and the buffet.  Desserts in the WJ were the same jello and small slices of sheet cake every day.   On the survey we gave the food a zero.

Two years later, we booked Vision again for a Baltic cruise and we pleasantly surprised by the huge improvement of all the food.  I wonder if they replaced the head chef?  

We are booked on Symphony in January and anticipating a decent meal on a newer ship.

 

 

[xqueenfrostine]

I’m currently aboard Symphony of the Seas and have eaten both in the MDR and in specialty restaurants and have found the food to be pretty good across the board.  Not exceptional, mind you, but nothing to complain about.  My one meal in the MDR so far was easily as good as my meal at Jamie’s, though my meal at 150 Central Park was better than both.  

[Biker19]

4 hours ago, brillohead said:

Between norovirus and COVID and food waste issues, I bet we never see self-serve at the buffet again.

You've been reading too many  @ace2542 posts.

[cynt]

This thread is making me rethink my decision not to purchase the UDP on my Liberty cruise. Hmmm. 🤔